detection even by men. True it is, generally speaking, that 66 murder will out." True it is that Providence hath so ordained, and doth so govern things, that those who break the great law of Heaven by shedding man's blood, seldom succeed in avoiding discovery.

13. Especially, in a case exciting so much attention as this, discovery must come, and will come, sooner or later. A thousand eyes turn at once to every man, every thing, every circumstance connected with the time and place; a thousand ears catch every whisper; a thousand excited minds intensely dwell on the scene, shedding all their light, and ready to kindle the slightest circumstance into a blaze of discovery.

14. Meantime the guilty soul can not keep its own secret. It is false to itself; or, rather, it feels an irresistible impulse of conscience to be true to itself. It labors under its guilty possession, and knows not what to do with it. The human heart was not made for the residence of such an inhabitant. It finds itself preyed on by a torment which it dares not acknowledge to God or man.

15. A vulture is devouring it, and it can ask no assistance or sympathy either from heaven or earth. The secret which the murderer possesses soon comes to possess him; and, like the evil spirits of which we read, it overcomes him, and leads him whithersoever it will. He feels it beating at his heart, rising to his throat, and demanding disclosure. He thinks the whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, and almost hears its workings in the very silence of his thoughts.

16. It has become his master. It betrays his discretion, it breaks down his courage, it conquers his prudence. When suspicions from within begin to embarrass him, and the net of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal secret struggles with still greater violence to burst forth. It must be confessed, it will be confessed; there is no refuge from confession but suicide-and suicide is confession.

[The Argument, which embraces nine tenths of the entire speech, is here wholly omitted.

The following are the closing remarks of Mr. Webster in his address to the jury. They will compare favorably with those of the public prosecutor in the case of Robert Emmet. See page 294.]

II. CLOSING REMARKS.

1. Gentlemen, your whole concern should be to do your duty, and leave consequences to take care of themselves. You will receive the law from the court. Your verdict, it is true, may endanger the prisoner's life; but then it is to save other lives. If the prisoner's guilt has been shown and proved beyond all reasonable doubt, you will convict him. If reasonable doubts of guilt still remain, you will acquit him.

2. You are the judges of the whole case. You owe a duty to the public as well as to the prisoner at the bar. You can not presume to be wiser than the law. Your duty is a plain, straightforward one. Doubtless we would all judge him in mercy. Toward him, as an individual, the law inculcates no hostility; but toward him, if proved to be a murderer, the law, and the oaths you have taken, and public justice, demand that you do your duty.

3. With consciences satisfied with the discharge of duty, no consequences can harm you. There is no evil that we can not either face, or fly from, but the consciousness of duty disregarded. A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent, like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the seaa, duty performed, or duty violated, is still with us, for our happiness or our misery.

They are with us close; and in that

4. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are with us. We can not escape their power, nor fly from their presence. in this life, they will be with us at its scene of inconceivable solemnity, which lies yet farther onward, we shall still find ourselves surrounded by the consciousness of duty-to pain us wherever it has been violated, and to console us so far as God may have given us grace to perform it.

a Here Mr. Webster makes a beautiful application of the language of the Psalmist. "If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee."-Psalm cxxxix.

LESSON CXXVI.

[Analysis.-1. Dignity and importance of the subjects to which the preacher of the Gospel devotes himself. What they admit.-2. Importance of eloquence here. What is required in the eloquence of the pulpit.-3. Sincerity and goodness required in the preacher.-4. Advantages of the preacher.-5. The difficulties with which they are attended.-6. The preacher's vocation antithetically compared with that of other popular speakers.-7. Peculiarity of the position of the preacher.-8. The demands of good men upon him.-9. The different advantages of different kinds of public speaking.-10. In regard to the subject. A remark of Bruyeré.]

1. THERE is no other department of knowledge in which mankind ought to be so deeply interested as in that which relates to the Creator and Ruler of the universe, his attributes, government, and laws, the origin and nature of man, and his final destiny. The subjects, therefore, to which the preacher of the Gospel devotes himself, far exceed, in dignity and importance, those which engage the attention of the

Senate and the Bar; and they are such as admit the highest embellishments in describing, and the greatest vehemence and warmth in enforcing them.

2. True eloquence, which is the art of placing truth in the light most advantageous for conviction and persuasion, is, therefore, even more appropriate and more important in the pulpit than at the bar or in the forum. The object of the preacher is to make his hearers better;-not so much to discuss abstract points of doctrine, or inform them of something which they never heard before, as to give them clear ideas and persuasive impressions of religious truth. The eloquence of the pulpit, then, should be of that popular kind which, while it reasons soundly, also takes hold of the heart, and moves the feelings, so that, like the preaching of Paul, it may persuade men to be Christians.

3. If it is important for the advocate to impress his hearers with a belief in his sincerity, of still greater importance is it to the preacher. The latter, in order to be successful, must not only be a good man, but he must impress others with a firm belief in his goodness; and he must not only believe in the truth of the principles which he preaches, but he must also deeply feel their importance. Then he will ever carry with him that spirit of true piety which, even with ordinary talent, will make his discourses solid, cogent, and useful, and give to them an earnestness and strength superior, in their effects, to all the arts of studied eloquence.

4. The preacher is generally thought to have some advantages over the senator and advocate in treating his subjects. He chooses his theme at leisure; he speaks to a large assembly, who go expressly to hear him; he is secure from interruption; and he is obliged to make no replies, or extemporaneous efforts. He has the whole field to himself, and he plans and executes without opposition.

5. But if, sometimes, these be advantages, they are attended, likewise, with peculiar difficulties. The subjects of pulpit oratory, however important, are trite and familiar; and nothing is more difficult than to bestow, on what is common, the grace of novelty. And if the preacher has no trouble in contending with an adversary, so, likewise, he has

none of the advantages of debate, and of that conflict of mind with mind which excites attention and enlivens genius.

6. Moreover, the preacher is confined, mostly, to the qual ities of actions—to virtues and vices in the abstract; while other popular speakers treat more of persons. The preacher's business is to make you detest the crime; the pleader's, to make you detest the criminal; and hence it is the pleader who most easily secures your attention and rouses your indignation. The audience that listens to the preacher is apt to consider, very much, who speaks; those addressed from the bar, or in the senate, consider more what is spoken.

7. Hence it follows that many a character which the world would think nowise unsuitable for the bar, or the senate, would be deemed wholly unbefitting the pulpit. In this particular the position of the preacher is peculiar. He has a character to sustain, which is more easily injured than that of the senator or the lawyer; for he who is an authorized censor of others can expect no indulgence with regard to his own failings.

8. It is also exceedingly difficult for the preacher to meet the demands of all good men; for while too much lenity on his part, in reproving the faults, and vices, the follies, and errors of the times, will expose him to the charge of lukewarmness in the cause of virtue', too much severity, on the other hand, will stigmatize him as a stranger to the spirit of the Gospel.

9. It will thus be seen that the different kinds of public speaking have different advantages in respect to eloquence. In regard to the character of the speaker, the preacher has by far the most difficult part to sustain. In regard to the persons addressed, inasmuch as the more mixed is the auditory, the greater is the difficulty of interesting them in what is said, therefore the pleader who addresses a select few has, in this respect, the simplest and easiest task of all.

10. In regard to the subject, it will be found that the matters deliberated upon by public assemblies are better adapted to eloquence than those which form the topics of pleadings at the bar; and that discourses from the pulpit, from the august nature of the subject, have an advantage over